Through the movies of Raj Kapoor, Bimal Roy and others, Hindi film lovers of a certain vintage are familiar with romantic ideas like love for humanity and rejection of religious and nationalistic barriers. But with a cross-country, inter-religious love story in their screenplay, Hirani and Joshi are closer to ideals of rationalism and scientific temper. Sanjukta Sharma

The seat of a fat man’s pyjamas is caught in the crack of his buttocks, a phenomenon that used to be called ‘butterfly’ by the children of Madras. An alien, who is already perplexed by the complexities of human clothing, pulls out the smudge. But then he feels he has probably interfered with the fat man’s sense of fashion, and tucks the garment back into the crack. This moment in PK also describes the aftermath of the reformatory film, which tries to eliminate the distortion of religion in the human mind but then allows all believers to go back home from the theatre with their butterflies intact.

All arguments against religion are known and are as old as religion itself. PK is at its clumsiest when it tries to educate the human mind through an infusion of commonsense. When a story states the obvious it self-destructs, and PK falls into the trap several times. Religion seldom states the obvious, the reason why it is a superior story. Manu Joseph

This is a UTV Disney-backed film but it is produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra and is directed by Rajkumar Hirani. Its Rajkumar Hirani's latest film after getting three back-to-back hits (3 Idiots and the Munnabhai series). His writing partner is Abhijat Joshi. His films touches the Hindi heartland and the ending is usually on a high note of hope without being a wannabe Hollywood-looking zinger masalathon (no wickedly charming man beating up bad guys without breaking a sweat in order to woo a girl).

The film is themed around organized religion and fraud god-men who thrive on human fears and desperations. It also highlights issues such as idol worship and religious taboos. This kind of films are rarely made in our contemporary mainstream Hindi film industry. Its also timely. PK addresses a real issue and its intended to rationalizes this to the audience i.e. the misuse of god's name by organised religion.

PK means 'drunkard' in Hindi. The protagonist is a wide-eyed stranded alien with child-like attributes. He is trapped on Earth and cannot go back to his home planet till he finds his ship's beacon which was stolen the minute he arrived (naken like a newborn) in North Western India. Hence his searches for God (the earthlings believe is the one who can help him). But what got me thinking is why did the writers choose to name the female lead Jagat Janani or Jaggu and why does she have a tomboy look?

The last leg is just too stretched with hyperbolic sermoning and gets highly melodramatic. Songs was just average, like it was an after thought. Stunts or editing is not its strongest points.

Mobs ransacked cinema theatres screening PK and religious leaders have demanded a ban. A lawyer in Kanpur moved court against the star saying that the poster was “obscene.” Aamir Khan defended nudity on PK poster saying that it’s not for publicity. He called it “key art”, and that it depicted the story of the film. The poster (below) features Aamir posing nude with a strategically placed boombox hiding his modesty. The poster was later approved by a government panel. The Supreme Court dismissed a petition seeking a ban on the film for hurting religious sentiments and promoting nudity. “If you dont like it, dont watch it. Indian youth are smart enough to know that PK is fiction,” said Chief Justice R. M. Lodha. The more newspapers, TV channels and social media buzzed about angry people vandalising theatres, the more curious everyone else became and they all trooped into the theatres to find out what the deal was really about.

"Once a film has come through the Censor Board, no one has the right to demand that it be pulled from theatres because it has offended them. Everyone is sensitive to something, and if you begin to factor it all in, you’ll never make a movie."